Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, also referred to as Mizrachi, Edot HaMizrach, or Oriental Jews, are the descendants of the local Jewish communities that had existed in the Middle East and North Africa frombiblical timesinto the modern era. Originally, the term Mizrahi was the Hebrew translation of Eastern European Jews' German name Ostjuden, as seen in the Mizrahi Movement, Bank Mizrahi and in HaPoel HaMizrahi. In the 1950s the Jews who came from the communities listed above were simply called and known as Jews and in order to distinguish them in the Jewish sub-ethnicities, Israeli officials, who themselves were mostly Eastern European Jews, transferred the name to them, though most of these immigrants arrived from lands located further westward than Central Europe.
Heh, gee. What're the odds?